European stocks stable before US jobs data

EUROPEAN stock markets steadied and the euro slipped versus the dollar with all eyes firmly on key US jobs data due ahead of the weekend.

London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares edged up 0.06 per cent to stand at 6,339.88 points in late morning deals.

Frankfurt's DAX 30 index slipped 0.20 per cent to 8,082.25 points and in Paris the CAC 40 nudged up 0.02 per cent to 3,815.16.

European equity indices had ended down on Thursday after the European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of England kept interest rates on hold and held off providing more monetary stimulus to the fragile economic recovery, dealers said.

But the economic outlook for Germany is brightening, the Bundesbank said Friday, as improved trade data suggested Europe's biggest economy is slowly leaving its recent weakness behind it.

"The big focus (Friday) is on non-farm payrolls as traditionally everyone waits for the official release of the data on US jobs," said Gekko Markets trader Anita Paluch.

"The numbers should offer some hints on the future of the Fed's QE (stimulus) "programme," she added.

Ahead of the data, the euro fell to $1.3235 from $1.3243 late in New York on Thursday.

The European single currency on Thursday hit a three-month peak at $1.3305 after the ECB held off another interest rate cut, while its head Mario Draghi offered some optimism for the troubled eurozone.

The Bundesbank predicted on Friday that German gross domestic product would expand by 0.3 per cent in 2013 and 1.5 per cent in 2014.

That represents a slight downward revision from the previous forecasts in December when the central bank had been pencilling in growth of 0.4 per cent and 1.9 per cent respectively.

The dollar on Friday dropped to 96.52 yen from 95.91 yen on Thursday.

At the end of a torrid week for the greenback that has seen it lose about four per cent against the yen, economists said the non-farm payrolls data would determine its near-term direction.

The continued weakness of the US currency sent Tokyo stocks down again, with the Nikkei losing 0.21 per cent to end at 12,877.53 points on Friday.

There are fears that a weak batch of job creation figures for May will highlight weakness in the US economy, fuelling another round of dollar selling.

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